Overlooked Britain
Surrey’s oriental delight
RUSSELL CLARK / ALAMY
lucinda lambton In 1889, Britain’s first purpose-built mosque was erected in Woking – and it’s pure joy
The mosque at Woking is the first purpose-built mosque in England, constructed in 1889. Described by Nikolaus Pevsner as ‘sincere and dignified’ – yet quite dancing with the architectural gaiety of the Indo-Islamic style – it is a very great surprise to come upon when run to ground in Woking! It quite knocks you for six. Standing in Oriental Road, it was built by Dr Gottlieb Leitner, a distinguished orientalist and linguist from Hungary, and was partly funded by Begum Shah Jahan, the female ruler of what was to become, in our time, the benighted Indian state of Bhopal. Built in the ‘Art Arabe’ architectural style, it is replete with a wealth of geometric patterns and Arabic calligraphy, inspired by decorations from 82 The Oldie April 2022
the India Office in the British Library. It has a fine, exhilarating architectural delight at every turn. In the early 1880s Leitner bought the former Royal Dramatic College building in Woking, where he was to establish the Oriental Institute to promote Eastern literature and learning. He also set it up as the institution for awarding degrees from the University of Punjab in Lahore in India. The architect he commissioned for what was to become this little eastern jewel in England was William Isaac Chambers – designer of a number of fanciful Irish houses – who chose Bath and Bargate stone for the main body of the building that supports the dome and the minarets. The first formal place of Islamic worship to be built in the country, it has
been listed Grade I. Important visitors were legion: a berobed Emperor Haile Selassie came here in 1936 and Queen Victoria’s secretary, Abdul Karim, was a frequent worshipper from nearby Windsor Castle. By 1917, Woking’s Shah Jahan Mosque had become the centre for Islam in Britain, when the incumbent Imam, Sadr-ud-Din, arranged that a nearby piece of land be used as a burial ground for the 19 Indian soldiers who had been in the Indian hospital established in Brighton Pavilion. Woking’s mosque is still in vibrant working order today. Better still, it has recently been meticulously restored, with umpteen modernised facilities, such as video tours on its extensive, wellinformed website, welcoming visitors and worshippers alike.
